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Irene Mervyn Parnicott Pike, Baroness Pike, DBE (16 September 1918 – 11 January 2004) was a British Conservative politician. The name by which she came to be known, Mervyn, had been the name of her father's best friend, who was to have been her godfather; when he was killed in action, a few days before she was born, her father decided that the baby would take his name.[1]

Early life

Born in Castleford, Yorkshire,[2] into a family of Castleford pottery manufacturers, Pike was educated at Hunmanby Hall (East Riding of Yorkshire) and at Reading University and served with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II. She was managing director of a firm of pottery manufacturers.[1]

Career

Pike contested Pontefract in 1951 and Leek in 1955 without success. She was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Melton at a by-election in December 1956. She held several positions including Assistant Postmaster-General from 1959 to 1963, joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1963 to 1964 and Chair of the WRVS from 1974 to 1981 and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission from 1981 to 1985.

Awards

Pike was created a life peer on 15 May 1974 as Baroness Pike, of Melton in Leicestershire,[3] and was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1981 Birthday Honours.[4]

Coat of arms of Mervyn Pike
Escutcheon
Or on a cross Gules a churchwarden's staff headed of a mitre Or on a chief Sable a castleford fine stoneware teapot Proper.
Supporters
On either side a fox that on the dexter gorged with a wreath of ivy and that on the sinister with a wreath of rosemary Proper and each resting the interior hind foot on a portcullis Or.
Compartment
A grassy mount Proper.
Motto
Faithful Endeavour
Orders
Order of the British Empire[5]

Death

She died in 2004, unmarried, at a nursing home in Kelso, Scottish Borders, aged 85, from pneumonia following a stroke.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Roth, Andrew (16 January 2004). "Obituary: Baroness Pike of Melton". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b Sutherland, Duncan (24 May 2008). "Pike, (Irene) Mervyn Parnicott, Baroness Pike (1918–2004), businesswoman, politician, and voluntary worker". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93152. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ "No. 46292". The London Gazette. 17 May 1974. p. 6033.
  4. ^ "No. 48639". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 1981. p. 8.
  5. ^ Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage. 2000.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Melton
1956 – February 1974 		Succeeded by
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